All consultants and Salesforce employees will have used trailhead at some point along their learning journey, but we often find that customers and end-users don’t embrace it in the same way. In this article, we’ll take a look at what purpose trailhead really fulfils and how it benefits end users. Salesforce Trailhead is beneficial to the end-user but the key is to make sure you are using it at the right time and with a clear purpose in mind.

WHAT IS TRAILHEAD?

Trailhead is an extensive online learning resource that Salesforce has invested heavily in developing to be available to customers to independently learn about Salesforce capabilities in their own time.

Much like all good training courses, Salesforce Trailhead is broken down into modules and each module has a series of topics within it, enabling you to verify the relevancy of the material before you dive in. It will also give you an upfront view on how much time completion of the module is going to take you.

In the spirit of gamification and bringing a degree of fun and competition into Salesforce Trailhead, the concepts of badges and points to encourage workplace competition and general camaraderie, which is certainly rife in our office!

The great thing about trailhead is that it is not all theory-based, Salesforce Trailhead Playgrounds give you access to a Salesforce training environment that will check whether you have been able to implement a concept in the right way, which is great for those of us who struggle to learn just by reading!

WHAT SHOULD WE USE IT FOR?

These based on many years of personal and team usage but mainly interacting with customers on their experience with Salesforce Trailhead.

In the early days:

To build awareness – Look at the ‘Basics’ trails and take some time to learn general concepts.

To complement structured training – If Salesforce has been implemented by a partner it is likely you will have structured training sessions that are relevant to your configuration of Salesforce. These are great but there is often not an endless budget for questions and follow up sessions. Therefore, doing trails beforehand can help you to have more targeted questions during the sessions and often get more out of it. Likewise doing trails alongside these sessions or as a follow-up can be really beneficial to understand concepts from different angles.

If you’re self-implementing – This is a must. Mapping out your requirements and then researching trails that fit these concepts is a great way to start and will often give you some good hints and tips as to new ideas that you could implement. It is, however, not the place for tactical point questions.

As your knowledge evolves:

To explore new concepts – Once you have mastered a concept and covered all the trails you can use Trailhead to introduce you to new concepts that allow you to understand whether these would really benefit your business.

To support a business case – you may have been asked to research a concept to build a business case. Whilst this is likely to relate to new licenses where Salesforce and your partner can help you, it is also often helpful to run through trails to gain more independent confidence in discussing the topic.

WHEN IS TRAILHEAD NOT THE RIGHT ANSWER?

Typically, when you are trying to solve tactical point problems. It is great for structured learning but not for finding a specific answer to a problem. If you have the time to research a topic and try and find the answer within it that is fine but its not a quick fix. Salesforce have invested vast sums of many and time in making it an extensive learning environment and it needs to be used as such to be valuable.

DO YOU RECOMMEND TRAILHEAD FOR YOUR CUSTOMERS?

Yes we do. Salesforce Trailhead now enables you to build trailmixes. These combine the modules that are most relevant for the use case you are trying to serve. We will often direct customers to our customised trails or build them for and with them.

DOES TRAILHEAD MEAN I DON’T NEED A PARTNER?

You will always get more value from your Salesforce investment by using a partner. There are many minds with many years of experience that will bring design ideas to better your solution and generate a greater return. However, becoming proficient in trails will help you to better brief your consultants. It will help you be more independent with smaller tasks and better manage your internal stakeholders.

Here at Marketing Logic, we’ve been in the Sales and Marketing Strategy game for longer than we care to remember. However, we’re proud of the exposure we’ve had to markets globally and the strategy we offer as a result.

If you are looking for Salesforce / Pardot Support with an existing Org or want to know if Salesforce or Pardot is right for you, get in touch with Marketing Logic for a free consultation or simply a chat. We work alongside Start-ups and Enterprises alike, we’re certain we will find you a path to growth, whatever your plans.

We are open Monday-Friday 9-6pm and have open channels for communication either on our LinkedIn, Twitter or you can simply give us a call on 020 8106 8500.